Member Article

New management model for tourism

Following recent news about the North East’s tourism success, two companies in the region have been talking about their work with local tourism businesses.

As part of an ongoing initiative to help tourism businesses in North East England, leadership development companies Ellmac and KSA Partnerships have been demonstrating a ‘People and Performance Model’ to help businesses better serve their visitors.

The project has helped seven tourism businesses across the region by focusing on their management and leadership structures in order to highlight areas where improvements could be made.

These organisations were Langley Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Seven Stories Centre for Children’s Books, Eslington Villa, NewcastleGateshead Initiative, High House Farm Brewery and Sir William Fox Hotel who shared their experiences and important lessons learnt.

Some of the issues addressed were poor people management skills, poor strategic management skills, and lack of recruitment skills.

Findings showed that it was difficult to recruit managers with the required skills and experience and as a result, many were taking on managers who were not ‘job ready’ or were promoting people within their organisations too quickly which perpetuated high staff turnover.

Paula McCormack, managing director of Ellmac said: “The project was commissioned following detailed research into the position of the tourism industry in the region. The findings suggested a number of issues, most of which centred around the theme of people - either attracting, developing, retaining, performing or perceiving careers generally within tourism.

“Managers need the skills to be able to motivate, coach and develop their staff as well as to be supportive and address difficulties effectively. The model gives tourism businesses the practical skills to do this.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .